My Yamaha ran just great all season, and I’ve been really impressed with the performance of the 250 h.p. VMAX SHO four stroke outboard. It’s a real upgrade from the standard four stroke, particularly for people looking for exceptional speed and holeshot to go along with the fuel economy and environmental friendliness of a four stroke outboard.

I made the Classic but had a little slip at the end of the year where I missed a couple of fish in tournaments, and that really came back to haunt me. It all started at Kentucky Lake, where the area that I fished last year and did real well around didn’t have any grass in it this year. And no grass means no fish, so I had to find offshore fish elsewhere.

There’s something that grinds at me when looking for offshore fish when there is no grass or other visible strucutre. I just don’t have the confidence to fish for fish that are just holding in current. Everything I’ve been taught about the habits of bass insists I find a factor like structure or food—something tangible and visible that the fish gravitate to. I just find it difficult to stick it out when fishing deep moving water with nothing tangible to attract the fish, so I usually give up after a while and move elsewhere to find fish.

At Kentucky Lake I missed a couple of key fish, and the same thing happened to me at Clarks Hill. I wasn’t on a ton of fish in the first place, but at each tournament I missed key bites. At Clarks Hill, I had a five pounder on a swimbait and he jumped twice and came off. That fish would have put me well into the cut, because a five pounder there is just gold, and a high scoring fish.

At Kentucky Lake, I had two big fish on the second day of fishing that would have put me into the cut, and they just came unglued. I really don’t know what happened, but it cost me. That’s just a part of bass fishing that you can’t control. You just have to accept it and move on, knowing that that fish just hurt your chances of making the finals. You can’t let it get into your head, or you’re done for the event. You just have to remember that the next cast can put you right back in the running to win the event.

Going into the last event on the Arkansas River I felt pretty confident because I’d made a special trip out earlier in the year to learn the water, and during prefishing for the tournament I found some great fish. But because of high water levels BASS decided to change the venue from the Arkansas River to Fort Gibson Lake, a decision I’m still not happy with. I’d put in a ton of time, money and effort learning the venue, and then they changed it at the last minute, and gave us just six hours of practice time to learn it.

I’m just really disappointed in the folks at BASS that made the decision to move the event and not give us adequate time to practice and learn the lake. I felt it provided a huge advantage to the people who fish that lake regularly, and that it showed in the outcome when a local won the event wire-to-wire. Everyone is supposed to be on an even playing field, so they should have either provided the normal practice period for everyone, or cancelled the event altogether. There’s just too much investment and too much riding on the line to just arbitrarily move the event to another location and expect people who haven’t fished those waters to be competitive. It’s just unfair to the majority of anglers in the field.

From the start I was uncomfortable at Fort Gibson Lake—the water was low and there were shoals all over the place. Going into the event I wasn’t even comfortable navigating around the lake, so I was really disappointed in the decision and I felt it favored some of the people who fish it regularly.

That all being said, I tried hard, and the most obvious thing I could see on the lake was docks, which I fished hard and caught a lot of fish on. Unfortunately, they weren’t the caliber of fish that were needed to be competitive in that event. I just didn’t have the time to find the fish that I would need to have a chance to do well in the event.

So with the season over, I’ve got a lot of stuff coming up this summer. I’m fishing the Northern Opens, and some of the PAA tournaments. I’m actually glad the Elite season is over. I’ve made the Classic, my motor ran hard without a glitch all season and is still looking strong, I’m looking forward to fishing Lake Champlaign and some of the other northern lakes I love to visit in the summertime. It’s been a good ride, and it should be a great summer on the water.

Full post:  http://blogs.discovervmaxsho.com/dave-wolak/one-fish-can-really-cost-you-in-a-tournament/

By Dave Wolak

Boy was it as busy week. Yamaha was offering demo rides on the lake at the Bassmaster Classic for those wanting to see the performance of the new Yamaha VMAX SHO four stroke engine firsthand. I’d talk to people who had a lot of questions about the engine in the Yamaha booth every day at the Expo, and then send them down to the lake to take a test ride, and everyone who came back was just smiling and amazed at how well that engine performs.

I’d see a lot of the guys who went on test rides later in the afternoon at the Yamaha socials they had at the restaurant, and just about everyone I talked to said it was just awesome. It’s interesting to see how the word about the VMAX SHO four stroke has spread through the consumer side of the industry. I guess it’s just the branching out of everybody spreading the word—friends tell their friends and they tell their buddies–and I can see the momentum building where every day more and more people are asking me about this engine. By the end of the year, just about everybody will know about this engine and will want to take a ride with it.

It’s a pretty exciting thing to see the expressions on the peoples faces and hear their descriptions of the engine, especially when they’re the same things I’ve been saying four a couple of months now. A lot of these guys are techies who really know boats, performance motors and bass boats and how motors perform, and the reactions are all the same—they’re just as excited about the engine as I was the first time I ran one.

The Bassmasters Classic was a reflection of the same kind of weather that’s been going on across the entire east coast of the country right now. It was cold for an extended period, although it did warm up a little bit during the last day or two. We had several Yamaha guys who were right there in the end.

It was tough not being able to fish it. This is the second Classic I didn’t make in six years of fishing as a professional. I missed it by very little, which any time you’re fishing the Elite Series, everyone is on par with their technical skills and it comes down to a circumstantial thing that happened at an event where I had a few fish die on me and wasn’t able to cull them. In this series, eight or ten ounces makes a big difference, and for me, it meant the difference between fishing the Classic and spending time helping Yamaha and my other sponsors by doing television and radio interviews and working their booths.

I’m used to being there, but it was also important to me that I was here for the introduction of this motor. It’s a critical time in the boating and fishing industry, and being a part of a “changing of the guard” with the old motors is a historic event I feel privileged to be involved with. Everyone from Yamaha worked their butts off here, and to see the results of their hard work has been overwhelming. Again, I’d rather be fishing the Classic, but if I had to be sitting on the side, I couldn’t think of a better place to be than in the Yamaha booth.

I’m on the road now, heading out to California for the first event of the season in the Bassmaster Elite series. I left this morning, but over the past weekend I’ve been at a bunch of Bass Pro Shops doing seminars and appearances during their annual spring sales event. I was at Charlotte on Friday, Sevierville, Tennessee on Saturday and Clarksville, Indiana on Sunday.

I had to fly back to Charlotte, drive home and do a couple of little things—like packing my truck and loading up all my tackle and gear and back-up stuff before I got on the road. All last night until about 2:30 this morning all I did was shuffle stuff around and then hopped in the truck this morning, and I’ve been on the road about five hours and it’s snowing. I’m currently driving through a winter wonderland. I’m just past Charlotte and there’s all kinds of snow coming down.

I thought a couple of years ago when I moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania that I would be getting away from this kind of weather, especially going into March. In the past few years I’ve been in T-shirts and shorts a lot—really moderate weather during the winter, and there were days when it was 70 degrees, but this year we’ve had a hard winter with a lot of snow and a lot of cold weather and bitter temperatures. So what better weather to take off in for California, and then it starts to snow as I pull out of my driveway.

So I’m just driving kind of slow and taking my time to make sure I make it out west safely and with my boat and tow vehicle in good working condition. This is about a 44 hour trip, so there’s no reason to rush. I’ll get there when I get there, but I’ll get there safely. I don’t start practice for the tournament until Monday morning, so there’s still plenty of time. The boat and I are ready to fish.

Full Story

23-14 at Clear Lake, CA (Golden State Shootout)

Finished 14th overall – Leaderboard

By Joel Shangle
Bassmaster.com

STOCKTON, Calif. — After all the chatter about the schizophrenic water temperatures and 35-mile-per-hour winds, the one condition that most influenced the standings on Day One at the 2010 TroKar Duel in the Delta in Stockton was the one that’s the most predictable: the tide.

Yes, 53-degree morning water temperatures had something to do with the California Delta’s largemouth population’s willingness to bite. And, yes, three prior days of gusty winds influenced the water clarity. But for many of the 93 anglers who fared the best on this complex of sloughs, canals and back bays, properly reading and fishing the tide was the key.

“Knowing how to fish those (tidal) conditions really helped on a day like today,” said North Carolina pro Dave Wolak, whose 19-pound, 8-ounce bag trails only Stephen Browning’s 21-11 after the first day of the 2010 Elite Series’ kickoff event. “It’s all relative when you’re fishing a tidal fishery. You can be in a great spot, but if you hit it when the tide’s not right, you won’t find any fish.”

Read the full article @ Bassmaster.com

Photo by James Overstreet

The Weather May Be Cold, But The New Yamaha VMAX SHO Four Stroke Is Hot

Boy was it as busy week. Yamaha was offering demo rides on the lake at the Bassmaster Classic for those wanting to see the performance of the new Yamaha VMAX SHO four stroke engine firsthand. I’d talk to people who had a lot of questions about the engine in the Yamaha booth every day at the Expo, and then send them down to the lake to take a test ride, and everyone who came back was just smiling and amazed at how well that engine performs.

I’d see a lot of the guys who went on test rides later in the afternoon at the Yamaha socials they had at the restaurant, and just about everyone I talked to said it was just awesome. It’s interesting to see how the word about the VMAX SHO four stroke has spread through the consumer side of the industry. I guess it’s just the branching out of everybody spreading the word—friends tell their friends and they tell their buddies–and I can see the momentum building where every day more and more people are asking me about this engine. By the end of the year, just about everybody will know about this engine and will want to take a ride with it.

It’s a pretty exciting thing to see the expressions on the peoples faces and hear their descriptions of the engine, especially when they’re the same things I’ve been saying four a couple of months now. A lot of these guys are techies who really know boats, performance motors and bass boats and how motors perform, and the reactions are all the same—they’re just as excited about the engine as I was the first time I ran one.

The Bassmasters Classic was a reflection of the same kind of weather that’s been going on across the entire east coast of the country right now. It was cold for an extended period, although it did warm up a little bit during the last day or two. We had several Yamaha guys who were right there in the end.

It was tough not being able to fish it. This is the second Classic I didn’t make in six years of fishing as a professional. I missed it by very little, which any time you’re fishing the Elite Series, everyone is on par with their technical skills and it comes down to a circumstantial thing that happened at an event where I had a few fish die on me and wasn’t able to cull them. In this series, eight or ten ounces makes a big difference, and for me, it meant the difference between fishing the Classic and spending time helping Yamaha and my other sponsors by doing television and radio interviews and working their booths.

I’m used to being there, but it was also important to me that I was here for the introduction of this motor. It’s a critical time in the boating and fishing industry, and being a part of a “changing of the guard” with the old motors is a historic event I feel privileged to be involved with. Everyone from Yamaha worked their butts off here, and to see the results of their hard work has been overwhelming. Again, I’d rather be fishing the Classic, but if I had to be sitting on the side, I couldn’t think of a better place to be than in the Yamaha booth.

I’m on the road now, heading out to California for the first event of the season in the Bassmaster Elite series. I left this morning, but over the past weekend I’ve been at a bunch of Bass Pro Shops doing seminars and appearances during their annual spring sales event. I was at Charlotte on Friday, Sevierville, Tennessee on Saturday and Clarksville, Indiana on Sunday.

I had to fly back to Charlotte, drive home and do a couple of little things—like packing my truck and loading up all my tackle and gear and back-up stuff before I got on the road. All last night until about 2:30 this morning all I did was shuffle stuff around and then hopped in the truck this morning, and I’ve been on the road about five hours and it’s snowing. I’m currently driving through a winter wonderland. I’m just past Charlotte and there’s all kinds of snow coming down.

I thought a couple of years ago when I moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania that I would be getting away from this kind of weather, especially going into March. In the past few years I’ve been in T-shirts and shorts a lot—really moderate weather during the winter, and there were days when it was 70 degrees, but this year we’ve had a hard winter with a lot of snow and a lot of cold weather and bitter temperatures. So what better weather to take off in for California, and then it starts to snow as I pull out of my driveway.

So I’m just driving kind of slow and taking my time to make sure I make it out west safely and with my boat and tow vehicle in good working condition. This is about a 44 hour trip, so there’s no reason to rush. I’ll get there when I get there, but I’ll get there safely. I don’t start practice for the tournament until Monday morning, so there’s still plenty of time. The boat and I are ready to fish.

View on Vimeo.

Approaching this week I knew it was going to be a busy time, so at the end of last week I took my son to the mountains of North Carolina for the first time. That was on the tail end of that big front that crossed the country, so cold there was a lot of snow on the ground and we had a great time playing in the snow and just relaxing before I had to head out to the Bassmaster Classic.

I arrived here in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday evening and had a hard time finding a place to park my boat. It’s tough enough to find somewhere to put a boat during the Classic when just about every empty parking space is taken, but when you come in late at night, the options are even more limited. Then the minute I woke up on Monday morning, it all started.

Even when you’re not fishing in the Classic, it’s work, work, work. I had some meetings with Yamaha and worked out my promotional schedule that I’ll be doing while here, and as you know Yamaha is launching the new VMAX SHO four stroke engine, so I’m involved with helping promote that engine. Just to give you an idea how things flow, I was up at 5:30 this morning, and did three live segments for the local CBS affiliate before breakfast.

It’s mostly me and Ish (Monroe) working the Yamaha promotions. I’ve been fortunate to make four Classics in the six years I’ve been fishing, and this is one of the year’s I didn’t qualify. That doesn’t mean I get the time off. Even though I’m not fishing, I want to be out here promoting my sponsors and helping bring something back to the people who help me, and hopefully make up for not making the Classic by helping get the word out about the new products.

Read the full post @ yamahagamechanger.com

Over the next several articles we will explore and hopefully inspire everyone to consider a comprehensive fitness program as it relates to fishing. An all encompassing program that includes conditioning, sports psychology, and diet. Each topic interrelated to the other and equally as important to a complete program. We need only look back in history a short time to realize the dramatic changes that have occurred in all major sports. The NFL and NBA, for example, showcase some of the most amazing athletes we’ve ever seen. These athletes have the physiques, speed, and strength we never knew were possible. The 2009 Summer Olympics gave us several performances by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt that shocked the track and field world; smashing the world record in both the 100 and 200 meters. Meanwhile, Michael Phelps, with 8 swimming gold medals(and 8 world records) broke Mark Spitz’s 37 year record of 7 Olympic gold medals in a single Olympic games. What was once a 6-8 month season for most athletes is now a year long commitment. Today’s athletes realize that their conditioning is a lifestyle and not just a part-time job. The emphasis on continuous training and conditioning has elevated the level of play in each sport and is never overlooked.

There’s no reason why our sport of fishing should be any different. It’s sometimes been easier for us as competitive fishermen to overlook the fact that we too are athletes. While we don’t play in stadiums or on courts and often times are not in front of large crowds of fans, we do challenge our bodies and minds each time we take to the water. No doubt, there are different challenges that fishermen face compared to competitors in other main stream sports. However, the stress and the demands on the body and minds of competitive fishermen require that same commitment if we are to succeed at the highest level of competition. Improving our level of fitness will no doubt reflect positively at the end of a day on the water. We’ve heard the debate for years, usually from those who don’t fish, that fishing is not a sport but rather a hobby to pass the time and relax. There’s no denying we enjoy our sport and get a sense of relaxation from it, but for most tournament anglers it’s not just a hobby and for the elite it’s a career. Take a look around you at the next tournament and you’ll recognize guys that have always been extremely competitive their whole lives, no matter what their cause. Anyone who’s been awakened at 3:30am to get to a boat check and then spent the next 8-10 hours standing with one foot on a trolling motor pedal trying to fight the wind and the waves will certainly agree that there is no debating we’ve evolved into athletes. One aspiring young pro recently told me that he was not prepared for the physical strain a 3-4 day tournament put on the body and that it was the biggest adjustment he had to make during the tournament. It is more a sport today than ever and will continue to move in that direction with the next generation of anglers coming into the field.

Read the full post @ basseast.com